Hello All!
(Sorry this has been delayed for so long!)
We thought we would share some of what we did on our trip to Misaje. We asked if any of our skills could be used to serve in Cameroon during our summer break. We were asked to serve by helping at a village site; Mark would deal with cables since they are setting it up for
electrical for computers while the team translates and shares data and I would help Kay (one of the translators) by watching her two young kids so she could get some extra work done.
Since the roads are pretty bad and the time of our trip was limited, the three of us (Jim, Leah and I) flew up to Banso in the Northwest which is about as close as they could fly us. Due to all the weight of our supplies and equipment, we had to have our fourth team member (Derrick) take some of our supplies and ride up on a bus (17-hour trip). At the air strip in Banso we were picked up by Rich, a missionary that works on the cluster project that the new translation
center will serve. The ride to Misaje was bumpy, but the views were amazing as we weaved around small mountains, saw villages in valleys, and tea fields. After two hours we arrived in Misaje and were welcomed by Chris and Kay Smoes, the missionaries also working on the Misaje cluster project.
That afternoon we went with Chris to meet the 24 Cameroonians that make up the 6 translation teams. They were very excited to see us as they are glad to be moving into a new building this Fall. They had mistaken Jim for another missionary and gave a large welcome only to
realize when we were introduced that they had mistaken him for someone else. This was quiet funny to everyone. Old white men look alike. While we were meeting with them, the rain began to pour almost deafening loud on the tin roof. Once the rain slowed down, we went and visited the new translation center where Jim and I discussed some of our plans for the work for the building.
Friday morning we had the wake-up call of the rooster getting closer and closer to our window. We decided that he was saying “I know you are in there! Get up!” We began around 8 am running electrical cable to all the electrical outlets. That took all day Friday and on
Saturday morning we began to run the electric for all the light switches and light fixtures. Around noon on Saturday we went over to have lunch with Rich and his family at their home. They live right in the village, next to the Fon (village leader or chief). We had great conversations with great food as we heard about the work Rich and Katrina are doing on the Misaje cluster project. The passion that they have to help with Bible translation
into people’s mother tongue was great to learn more about and hear how the translation center will help. After a long lunch we headed back to run more electrical cable, but needed more supplies so Jim had sent Derrick on the 3-hour trip back to Banso to find electrical supplies and so he could visit family while we are. Saturday evening we played Uno with the Smoes and enjoyed another excellent meal by Kay.
We were staying in another missionary house near the Smoes. In Misaje they have “sneak spiders” as Mark would say; they were oddly flat and slightly large. Each night Mark battled
the spiders so he could sleep better at night. One especially taunted him one night by coming out from its hiding space only to run back as soon as Mark tried to smash it. He kept telling me that the spider was staring at him!
Sunday was our 2nd year anniversary. We slept in a bit and Kay had made us a special breakfast of eggs and sausage with some homemade bread. Then we went to church around 9 am. The service was in pidgin English, so we understood about the same as when the service is
in French! We sang and gave offerings. The people brought food to auction off for tithes, which is common in villages. After the 3-hour service we came back to the Smoes' house for lunch and rested during the afternoon. Later we enjoyed some movies with popcorn and smoothies.
Monday night Leah got sick all night (keeping Mark up) and had to rest the following morning. Derrick arrived back with electrical supplies and we finished the electrical wiring and ran network cable in the attic by noon. Jim and Chris worked on the solar panel system outside
and I worked on terminating the ends on the network cables. Derrick was also able to install the light fixtures.
Tuesday was the last day we worked. We started around 8:30 am and finished around 8 pm. Leah felt better and was back helping Kay with the kids. We finished all of the loose ends and installed all of the solar panel system. By 8 pm we were exhausted, but were able to complete the work.
Wednesday we were supposed to leave for the airport by 7 am, but it had started to rain by 9 pm the night before and was still raining by 8:30 am. So, we waited since the rain makes the roads going up and down the small mountains very dangerous because there are no guard rails. It was finally around 10 am when we felt like the rain had paused enough to give the roads a
bit of time for the water to settle. We left and the adventure back to Banso began. We slowly made our way out of Misaje and we drove for about 30 minutes and the rain began again. We slipped a little here and slid a little there, but we continued on slowly and made it to
Banso safely in under three and a half hours. We thought that maybe we could still fly out as the plane was waiting for us and we loaded all of our things, but then the rain started again. The main issue was that the air strip in Banso is at about 7,500 feet and the clouds hang too low when it rains to make safe takeoffs. So we realized we were going to be spending the night in Banso. We all made arrangements with a guest house that is a part of a Baptist hospital. We found that the guest house was right next to the Michael's who are missionaries that are temporarily in Banso before they move further north once their home is built. They kindly offered us all dinner and we enjoyed the evening chatting and sharing our new experiences from Misaje. Leah saw the large eatable termites that had found an opening into the house. Right
before it was dark we looked out and saw that the clouds were so low that they engulfed the hillside were we were located! The elevation, hillside, and the valley below caused the clouds to settle right on us! The rain continued until some point in the middle of the night and
when we awoke the clouds lifted enough!
We were fortunate to arrive at the air strip around 7 am and flew back to Yaounde safely! Once we returned we felt we really made a difference with the work we did: Leah helped Kay so that she could focus on work for a few days and we we were able to complete the electrical and network cabling in the translation center. Also, we got to know many of the people in the village teams working on translation and literacy projects!
Email us if you would like to see more pictures!
Joy and Peace in Christ
Mark and Leah Janowiak
